cinnamon rolls–a holiday tradition

January 3, 2010

I love asking people what they eat for Christmas. Unlike Thanksgiving where everyone comes together to eat turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing, Christmas means something different for every family. Last year, my husband and I spent our first Christmas together as a married couple. He grew up eating cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning and I liked the idea of adopting that for our own Christmas traditions.

This year, I saw this recipe on Ree Drummond’s site and I knew this was going to be this year’s Christmas morning cinnamon roll. After test driving it for a charity bake sale (I’m proud to say it was one of the most popular items), I had a better idea of what I was getting into and was ready to take these on over Christmas. After two batches, I can honestly say that these make Cinnabon look like amateurs.

Klutzy note: The recipe I intended to use was supposed to be halved, but apparently in addition to being klutzy, I’m also mathematically challenged. I halved everything except the yeast. After 30 seconds of shouting expletives, I carried on and realized that the only real effect was that the dough just rose much quicker than I would have expected. Heck, I may even keep the double yeast measurement for the future, because it’s fun to punch the dough down.